1999
1998 1999 2000 Event * Graham Allison publishes revised edition of The Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis based on new material. * Jesse Helms, wingnut Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, blocks Clinton administration efforts supporting West African moratorium on small arms. * Arson attacks on abortion providers in Wisconsin (twice in March, once in April), North Carolina (March), New Mexico (March and May), South Dakota (March), California (July) and New Hampshire (August). Successful prosecutions of Ricky Lee Marshall and Martin Upoff. * Kenneth S. Duffeyes publishes Hubbert's Peak. * Last Comanche Code Talker, Charles Chibitty, receives the Knowlton Award from the United States Government. * Japanese Parliament passes modest reform in the Nuclear Emergency Preparedness Act. * Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act effectively dismantles Glass Steagall Act financial regulation, paving the way for the boom and bust years of the early 21st century. * China's population is 1,257.86 million. Timeline January * January 4: Senegal becomes the first country to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. * January 29: The Italian Radical Party holds Leva la leva Conference in Rome against military conscription. February * February 5: Iraqi Ambasador to the Vatican, Wissam al-Zahawie, visits Nigerseeking suppport from African countries to oppose UN sanctions. The U.S. Embassy reports his visit as rountine. * February 12: The United States Senate acquits President Bill Clinton of the charges filed against him, with neither article of impeachment receiving even a simple majority. * February 12: Darwin Day * February 19: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met with Pope John Paul II and renewed invitation for the Pope to visit Bethlehem in the year 2000. March * March 12: Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic become the first East European countries to join NATO. * March 24: NATO begins bombing Yugoslavia in response to campaigns of ethnic cleansing by Serb forces in Kosovo. * March 24: House of Lords votes 6 to 1 that Gen. Augusto Pinochet'' Ugarte had committed extradictable crimes and that his immunity as head of state did not cover those crimes.'' April * April 1: The [[Northwest Territories are divided, creating Nunavut, the third and newest territory of Canada * April 20: Twelve students and a teacher are killed at the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado. The dreeadful social cost of the easy availability of firearms in America is brought home to everyone who can think critically. Many Americans remain puzzled that teenage males could feel such alienation and rage in the land of suburban plenty. * April 30: San Marino becomes the third country to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. May * May: The Cavalese Cable Car Disaster twins, U.S. Marine Corps. captains Richard J. Ashby and Joseph Schweitzer are convicted in a military trial of obstruction of justice for destroying a videotape recorded from the plane on the day of the event that killed 20. Ashby received a 6 month prison sentence but was released after 4.5 months. That is less than one week per death caused. Another triumph of American military justice. * May 7: NATO jet mistakenly attacks Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during Kosovo War. * May 8: Parliamentary Election in Fiji. * May 12: Yevgeny Primakov is suddenly dismissed as Priem MInister of Russia by Boris Yeltsin. Constitutional crisis. * May 20: Italian Red Brigades assassinate economist Massimo D'Antona. * May: India discovers Pakistani military incursion into the Dras-Kargil area. Subsequent fighting becomes the Kargil Incident. June * June 3: "Yugoslav" (Serbian) President Slobodan Milosevic concedes after 78 days of U.S. led aerial bombardment. Was Big Bill Clinton the first world leader to win a war by airpower alone? * June 6: Israeli client South Lebanon Army withdraws from parts of southern Lebanon. * June 7: Election in Indonesia. * June 10: The War in Kosovo ends. October * October 1: CENTCOM is given control over the Caspian Sea basin, added to the Middle East as its area of responsibility. * October 10: The New York Times reports that Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharaf's hold on power is weakening. Pakistani Army leaders have already written the narrative that will excuse their own seizure of power, again. * October 12: Pakistani Gen. Musharraf seizes power in a miltiary coup d'etat, endign Nawaz Sharif's second term as Pakistani Prime Minister. * October 27: Pres. Clinton waives economic sanctions on democratic India; Pakistan remains under sanctions because of its military coup. * October 27: Russian researcher Igor Sutyagin is arrested by FSB (secret police) of the Kaluga Region. November * November 2: Mass shooting in Honolulu, Hawaii at the Xerox Office Building as Byran Uyesugi kills 7 with a Glock 17 9mm pistol. * November 29: Fiji becomes the fifth country to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. * November 30: Seattle Mayor Paul Schell declares a state of emergency in the face of violence directed at property linked to small numbers of anarchists (and perhaps agents provacateurs) at massive demonstrations by anti-globalization protesters at the ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization. December * December 20: Ghana becomes the sixth country to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. * December 31: Boris Yeltsin announces he will resign as President of Russia early.